Sri Lankan men dance while others wave their national flags as they celebrate in central Colombo May 17, 2009 what the government says is the defeat of the Tamil Tiger rebels in the north of the country. Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa on Saturday said the Tamil Tigers had been militarily defeated as soldiers seized control of the entire coastline for the first time in a 25-year war. Rajapaksa spoke after troops took control of the Indian Ocean island nation's entire coast for the first time since war broke out in 1983, cutting off the Tigers' last hope of escape from a military advance aimed at crushing separatist resistance. REUTERS/David Gray (SRI LANKA CONFLICT POLITICS SOCIETY)